Delete Someone's Windows Password

Depending on your access to the other accounts in the Windows computer, deleting someone's password could be as simple as logging on to an administrator account, as complicated as hacking into the computer.

Steps

Signing on Using a Created Administrator Account

This method is the easiest, but it assumes that you have access to another administrator account on your computer.

  1. Log in to the administrator account.
  2. Click on "Start." Then, click on "Control Panel."
  3. In Control Panel window, click on "User Accounts and Family" first (Other windows version will appear 'User Accounts' automatically). Second, choose "User Accounts".
  4. In User Accounts window, choose "Manage another Accounts." Then it will take you to another window of a list of all accounts found on your system. Select the account that you want to remove the password and click on it.
  5. A window of your chosen account will now appear. Click on "Remove the Password."
  6. A message will prompt on how it's gonna be after removing the password of your selected account. Click "Remove Password" if you definitely decided to delete the password. Done!

Signing on Using the default Administrator Account

If you do not have access to a created administrator account on your computer, this is the first thing that you should try, as it is the easiest and least invasive.

  1. Start the system. When you install Windows, an "Administrator" account is automatically created (its password to blank).
  2. Wait for the system to book up. When you see Windows Welcome screen (Login screen), press ctrl+alt+del twice. The Classic Login box will appear.
  3. Type "Administrator"(without quotes) in Username field. Leave the Password field blank. Now, press Enter and you should be able to log into Windows.
    • If you are using Safe Mode, Windows will show this built-in Administrator account in Login screen (you will not have to type it in).
  4. Reset your account password.
    1. Click the start button. Then, click "Control Panel."
    2. Click "User Accounts." Then, click "User Accounts" from the new set of options that appears.
    3. Click "Manage User Accounts." Provide confirmation if necessary (if your administrator password is still set to blank, you shouldn't have any trouble here).
    4. Go to the "Users" tab. Then, find "Users for this computer." Click on the desired username and hit "Reset Password."
  5. Type and confirm the new password. Then, click okay.
  6. Same thing can be done using Safe Mode. In Safe Mode Windows will show this in-built Administrator account in Login screen.

Using a Disk Image to Reset Administrator Password (Unverified)[1]

Note that this method will only work for Windows 7, Vista, XP, or Windows 2000. If you've encrypted any files with EFS (Windows Encrypted File System), note that they'll be lost after you reset the password [1].

  1. Login to a second computer that can link to Internet.
  2. Go to the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. Click the blue tab that says "Bootdisk."
  3. Scroll a little over halfway down the page until you see the "Download" tab. Click on the first link ("bootable CD image.")
  4. Extract the ISO file from the .Zip file you've just downloaded.
  5. Burn the ISO image to a blank CD-R disk. Note that you want to burn the image inside the ISO file, not the actual file, onto the disk. Once you've burned the CD, you can verify that you've done it correctly by opening the CD with Windows Explorer. If you see many files, such as BOOT.CFG or BOOT.MSG, you've done it correctly. If you see only the ISO file on the CD, then the following steps will not work.
  6. Insert the CD-R disc into the computer for which you want to reset the password. Restart the computer. When it restarts, you should see a black screen with white letters and numbers (probably scrolling quickly by). This is what you want. Wait until the scrolling stops, then proceed to the next step.
    • If there is no difference in the way that your computer boots up, it is probably configured to boot directly from the hard drive [1]. To change this, go to the BIOS screen and select the "boot" tab. Then, move "CD-ROM" to the top to the list. Save your changes when done.
  7. Find where Windows is installed on the hard drive. If you have Windows XP or 2000, it's usually in the first partition. If you have Windows 7 or Vista, Windows is likely installed in the second partition. If you select the wrong partition, don't worry—if the program on the disk doesn't find Windows it will return you to the main screen and you'll be able to choose a different partition.
  8. Type the partition number at the bottom of the screen. At the bottom of the screen it will say "Select: [1]". Use your keyboard to enter the desired partition number here. Then, press Enter.
  9. Press Enter again. This step will ask you to enter the path to the registry directory. Unless you've changed it, Windows is installed in its default location, so you don't need to do anything more than hit Enter to move on.
  10. Look for "--More--" at the bottom of your screen. If you see this, it means you've selected the correct Windows partition. If you don't, you've probably selected an incorrect partition. In either case, you can press q to dismiss the screen. If you) selected the wrong partition, you'll be taken back to the previous screen (previous step so you can choose a different partition. If you chose the right partition, continue on.
  11. Type 1. Press Enter to continue.
  12. Type 1 again. Press Enter to continue.
  13. Type the name of the user account for which you want to reset the password. There should be a list of all the user names at the bottom of your screen. When you type, be sure that the spelling and capitalization of the username you enter matches its counterpart in the list exactly. Press Enter to continue.
  14. Type 1. Press Enter to continue.
  15. Look for "Password cleared!" near the bottom of the screen. If you see it, then you're almost finished! Type an exclamation point (!) to ensure that the program saves the changes and press Enter to continue.
  16. Type the letter q. Press Enter to continue. You'll be asked for confirmation—type the letter y and then press Enter again.
  17. Look for the words "New run?" at the bottom of your screen. If everything has gone well (no error messages), type the letter "n" and then hit Enter. Congrats! You're done!
    • If error messages appear, type the letter "y" and hit Enter. This will take you back to the beginning and allow you to try again.
  18. Eject the CD-R disc. Restart the computer (it should start as normal). Click your login icon. Don't enter anything in the password box if prompted. You should be able to log on without a password.

Tips

  • This will only work if your account has admin privileges, and only if your PC does not login to a domain.

Warnings

  • The other user will know that something happened, since their account will no longer require a password. You can add a password to their account, but if you don't know what their existing password was, it will block their access to the system
  • This should be for personal use only.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://www.winability.com/how-to-erase-windows-login-password/
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